Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Obama loves bailouts. They are the best thing that ever happened to the radical leftist/socialist cause. When capitalism worked (meaning all of the past 200+ years), radical leftist politicians like Obama couldn't tell Wall Street or banks or developers or auto companies or Fortune 500 CEOs what to do. When CEOs were actually making money, they could (and did) tell the government, government bureaucrats and politicians like Obama to shove off. Money equals independence and individualism. No government bureaucrat could ever boss the captains of capitalism around - not as long as capitalism worked.

But here's the problem: the last year has been the worst year in the history of American big business (as reported in Fortune only days ago). Banks are failing. Public companies are failing. Previously perfect Wall Street stock firms and investment banks are failing. The Big 3 automakers are failing. Big insurance companies (like AIG) are failing. Media companies - from newspapers to television networks - are failing. This was just the opening the socialists needed to not just destroy capitalism, but to literally hijack and take control of American big business. Obama now has virtually the entire business community (and national media) by the balls. If you want his bailout money, you have to play by his rules. Dissent is silenced. Obama is the bosses of bosses, "the capo di tutti capi." Obama now orders CEOs around like the new White House puppy, Bo. [more...]

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

GM is the latest American company to fall - as it is certain to declare bankruptcy or do a pre-packaged out of court deal. Either way, if you watch the happenings, bondholders and unions are inflexible waiting for a "better deal" and betting on the government bailout. I believe hope is not a strategy. One American icon company after another is falling. And there will be more. Our consumption economy has stalled and is failing to support businesses across every industry.

GM is a high profile case as was Merrill Lynch, AIG, and Lehman Brothers. In this case - and as I said, unions are a big part of the problem - instead of everyone pooling interests and rapidly executing a plan, the opposite is happening. The groups with a stranglehold on the business are just dug in and hoping that government will throw money down a black hole so they can continue to reap the rewards of a failed business and industry. This company and the industry is hamstrung and on a global basis, a dinosaur. Even if all works out for GM, no one is buying cars; so the whole pipeline, from manufacturing down to the auto dealers, is filled to capacity.

The government is trying new tricks to incentivize consumers to purchase cars, but people don't have a clue what all that means. All we know is that they're hoarding money and making do with what they have. How then can GM or Ford survive when the outlook for product sales is so grim? [more...]

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

G-20 leaders were clear that their countries would not spend trillions in their own economies stating clearly it is fiscally irresponsible. Even liberal nations like France oppose huge stimulus packages! Who would have thought the U.S. would have a more liberal position than France? The U.S. plans to borrow and mint an unprecedented amount of money. They hope to spend their way out of the economic disaster, but it's not spending when most of the money is new borrowing and printing new currency, is it? I don't know what economists and mathematicians are out there these days. $3 trillion to start with is so fiscally irresponsible that the G-20 nations are looking at us in disbelief. And disbelief is what is happening to the U.S. Rudy Giuliani on Fox News last week made a convincing argument. If we were a company (sound familiar?), the U.S. would be a bad investment. It's true! Who is running these numbers?

The Democratic Congress and White House are asking the world, like Hillary Clinton pandering to the Chinese, to buy more of our debt. If your child had gone crazy and had an unlimited spending amount on a credit card and spent more money than you could repay over decades and asked to spend even more than the splurge, what would you do? This is what America has become - a child in a toy store with a credit card from China, Russia and the rest of the world. Our parents are not happy and I am certain will take away our credit cards soon. All the toys in the budget - much of which is not to fix the economy as it is touted - is reckless, irresponsible and a policy that you would find in the Land of Misfit Toys. It is clear that G-20 nations agree. [more...]

The deterioration of America is startling. Values that we took for granted have eroded or disappeared - like the slicing of a salami. You know - one slice and then another slice - it appears to be the same as when you began - but then after a few more slices, suddenly you look and the salami is almost gone. That is what is happening to the United States of America - right before our eyes.

The idea that the Treasury Secretary of the United States asks for the power to fire and hire the heads of companies is something none of us ever would have thought we would see in our country. Ever!

The idea that to fix an ailing economy, we need to totally restructure the federal government and expand the budget and create new programs is a hijacking of the recession to mask the imposition of 1970s style Western European-style Big Government Socialism.

The idea that to "stimulate" the economy, we need to ladle out projects to every congressional district - most of which are goodies to extol the local Democratic Congressman - is a joke and a shame. And that the national news media would look at all this with nary a questioning eye? Oh, my.

Indeed, we have seen over the past two decades the triumph of the 1960s liberals. That drugged-out selfish, self-indulgent culture has come of age - and has swept our nation. [read on...]

Friday, April 3, 2009

We always hear that we are turning over this broken economy to our children someday (it's more like BROKE). Even as we attended the G-20 summit, it was apparent all signals point to bludgeoning behind the scenes and a world where America has reached the peak and is going down the other side of the hill. And with that, we are piling up trillions of dollars of new debt and minting currency like there is no tomorrow - and frankly, there is no tomorrow for us. Our leaders appear to believe that spending our way out of the crisis is the way we will recover. Actually, we are borrowing our way out of the crisis and printing what will be 'funny money' to the world. As I have said and even now, the President agrees the world has lost - is losing and will lose - faith in our economy and that is certain death for America. America's economic dominance around the world is over. Barack Obama let this message fly from his lips in London and it is spot on that America will be moving aside in the 21st century and will be one of several economic powers on earth. [more...]

This week I got a chance to see what capitalism really looks like. You see, capitalism - for better or worse - is alive and well in Las Vegas. The headlines in the Las Vegas paper were filled with pain, losses, doom, gloom, bankruptcy and, yes, CAPITALISM. Station casinos reported they might file for bankruptcy by April 15th. Bally's Hotel announced they were closing their Race & Sports book until next fall. The Riviera Casino Hotel and Hooters Casino Hotel both missed interest payments and could file for bankruptcy soon. Herbst Gaming is already in bankruptcy. None of the bad news in yesterday's headlines even included news about the three biggest gaming companies in the world. Harrahs, MGM Mirage and Las Vegas Sands (Venetian) are all multi-billion dollar conglomerates on the verge of bankruptcy (with stock prices off by more than 90%). And to top it off, one of the biggest developers in Las Vegas, James Rhodes, also made headlines by filing a petition for bankruptcy on behalf of a multitude of his businesses. It's all just another day at the office in the midst of the worst economic crisis since 1929. And I have a feeling - with Obama's tragic economic policies soon to take effect - we are heading for an economic crisis worse than 1929. This, folks, is what a full-fledged depression looks like. [more...]